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iReview | Edition 5

It starts off with a paragraph from the middle of the story, and there, begins the tragic story of Susie Salmon. She’s just an average girl, until she’s murdered. From there on, everything it’s about what she sees from “heaven”. She follows her family as they try to move on with their lives. Her first kiss is in love with a friend of hers who can see ghosts, and she’s just fine with that. What she’s not okay with, is the fact the her killer is still walking around scot-free, having raped, then killed, countless other women and children.

Though the story does have a timeline leading all the way until Susie’s friends reach adulthood, I didn’t find it had much of a storyline. It basically went on about how they were getting on and such. All good stories should have an ultimate goal, or better yet, a few. Lovely Bones, however, only had one: have to police arrest her murderer. But because you already know who this man is, there isn’t much suspense. So while Lovely Bones is beautifully written, it doesn’t have the suspense that will bring me to read it again.

Candy - Kevin Brooks

I borrowed this book not expecting much from it. The dark, gloomy cover, and yet surprisingly cheerful title didn’t seem promising. Frankly, I only borrowed it because rather thick, so that would keep me out of everybody and their neighbors’ hair for a little while, at least. The first couple of pages did absolutely nothing to impress me whatsoever, and I was terrified of what a terribly long read I would have ahead of me. After all, is a boy named Joe that has a new hat, and a lump on his hand that interesting? Not in the least bit.

It’s when Candy comes in that things really start to pick up, and my view on this book - as well as Brooks - started to lift. Joe, being the average, not-so-good-looking guy that he is, is immediately struck by Candy’s beauty. She dons leather, too much makeup, she has scary “friends”, and her eyes don’t look all that natural... In fact, the size of her pupils indicate that she’s high. This doesn’t scare Joe off, though, or warn him like it should. He’s intrigued by her, and armed with her phone number, he decides to call her. His family will testify that this is the worst mistake he could possibly make, but to him, meeting her was the best thing he’d ever done.

What happens here will bring average Joe into a world he never bothered to think of. All kinds of people fill this world; people that you wouldn’t ever want to meet. Candy is trapped right into the middle of the whirlwind of it all, and Joe takes it as his mission to rescue her. But if he wants to save her, he might just have to loose her.

Candy is a wonderful book, and while it has somewhat dark themes, I’ll let you know in advance that it isn’t in any way explicit. What I liked about how he wrote Joe, was that he was completely average. Though he rose to be the hero in trying to save Candy, he was clearly petrified, and whatever toughness he portrayed was just a show. And as for Candy, while she may seem the typical character of the girl who’s frightened deep down inside, she’s also strong. She knows everything about this world; how to live in it, and most importantly, how to survive it. But the one thing she can’t figure out, is how to get out of it.

This was an amazing read that I thoroughly enjoyed 'til the very end. I spent a good month looking for this book to read a second time, and I have a feeling that I’ll be searching for it again sometime soon.